Thunder Bluff

Thunder Bluff is the capital of the tauren, a city of tents, totems and longhouses built on top of four tall mesas at the northern end of Mulgore. Its High Chieftain, Cairne Bloodhoof, united the tauren tribes and led them into the Horde. The city is quieter than Orgrimmar, with its own trainers and services, and it is the home of the tauren druids of the Cenarion Circle.

Layout

Thunder Bluff sits on a cluster of high mesas, linked by rope bridges. Travelers ride wooden lifts up from the plains of Mulgore. There are four districts:

• The central mesa holds the High Chieftain's longhouse where Cairne lives, the bank (with Chesmu), the inn run by Innkeeper Pala, the wind rider tower and most of the merchants.
• Elder Rise is the home of the druids and the city's spiritual leaders. Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem, the tauren head of the Cenarion Circle, lives here with the druid trainer Turak Runetotem, and so does Magatha Grimtotem, the Elder Crone of the Grimtotem clan.
• Spirit Rise holds the shaman and priest trainers. Beneath it are the Pools of Vision, a cave where Forsaken of the Royal Apothecary Society, led by Apothecary Zamah, live as guests.
• Hunter Rise holds the hunter and warrior trainers, Holt Thunderhorn and Torm Ragetotem, and the hunter elder Melor Stonehoof.

The city's guards are the towering Bluffwatchers.

History

For centuries the tauren were scattered nomads, and by the time of the Third War the centaur were hunting them toward extinction. Thrall's orcs helped Cairne's Bloodhoof tribe escape to Mulgore, and in return Cairne pledged the tauren to the Horde. Cairne then gathered the other tribes and founded Thunder Bluff on the mesas, a place that could be easily defended.

Not every tribe was happy. Magatha Grimtotem and her clan resent Cairne's alliance with the orcs, and the Grimtotem are hostile to other tauren in much of Kalimdor. Even so, Magatha lives in the city as one of its elders.

Thunder Bluff also hosts The Forsaken. The apothecaries in the Pools of Vision study plagues and potions, and the tauren hope the Forsaken can help them heal the land.

Notable NPCs

• Cairne Bloodhoof, High Chieftain, on the central mesa.
• Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem, Arch Druid of the Cenarion Circle, on Elder Rise.
• Magatha Grimtotem, the Elder Crone, on Elder Rise.
• Apothecary Zamah of the Royal Apothecary Society, in the Pools of Vision.
• Melor Stonehoof, who sends hunters after great beasts across the world.
• Tal, the wind rider master.
• Rumstag Proudstrider, who takes cloth donations for reputation with Thunder Bluff.

Quests

Thunder Bluff has about 36 quests in our database, many of them the start or end of chains elsewhere.

• Rites of the Earthmother: young tauren finish their rites in Journey into Thunder Bluff, meeting Cairne, who then sends them after the kodo Arra'chea in Rites of the Earthmother.
• Melor's hunts: Steelsnap sends players after the hyena Steelsnap in Thousand Needles, and Frostmaw after the yeti Frostmaw in the Alterac Mountains.
• Zamah's chain: Forsaken Aid leads to Journey to Tarren Mill and Blood of Innocents in Hillsbrad, then back to Stonetalon in The Flying Machine Airport.
• The Sacred Flame: Zangen Stonehoof asks for moonwell water to retrieve a centaur artifact in The Sacred Flame.
• The Cenarion Circle: level 50 to 55 players help Hamuul with Un'Goro research in Un'Goro Soil and Morrowgrain Research, and are sent to the new frontier of Silithus in The New Frontier and to Rabine Saturna in Moonglade in Rabine Saturna.
• The Platinum Discs: players who bring the discs from Uldaman to Sage Truthseeker are rewarded in The Platinum Discs with a voucher for the alchemist Bena Winterhoof.
• The Ashenvale Hunt: The Ashenvale Hunt sends players north to Ashenvale.

Getting there

• On foot: ride a lift up from the plains of Mulgore. The road east from Mulgore leads to the Barrens.
• By wind rider: Tal has routes to the Crossroads, Orgrimmar and other Horde points.
• Zeppelins: Thunder Bluff had no zeppelin in the original game. Tauren headed for the Eastern Kingdoms travel through Orgrimmar.

Later history

In the story leading into Cataclysm (2010), Magatha's Grimtotem seized Thunder Bluff after Cairne's death in a duel with Garrosh Hellscream. Cairne's son, Baine Bloodhoof, retook the city and became High Chieftain.

Sources

• Thunder Bluff, Warcraft Wiki
• Cairne Bloodhoof, Warcraft Wiki
• Pools of Vision, Warcraft Wiki